Kastytis Rudokas. The architectural masterpiece of Antanas Vivulskis in Šiluva is 100 years old Culture

It is an object far ahead of its time and symbolically consolidating what this great artist perceived as Lithuanianness in a global context. Now, after the 100th anniversary of the consecration of this chapel, on September 8, 2024, it is hoped that the building will be declared a cultural monument of the highest level protected by the state.

Not only work is important, but also personality. We are living in such a period, when historical figures who shaped the history or art of Lithuania have become the object of considerable division in society. A. Vivulskis is the complete opposite – he is a unifying person, whose Lithuanian and Polish identity, as well as the talent of a sculptor and architect, fit perfectly under his deep Catholic faith.

Finally, the tragic death of this man would appear from the side – on January 10, 1919. while serving in the volunteer group formed to defend against the Bolsheviks in Vilnius, already suffering from pneumonia, he gave his warm cloak to a service friend, and died a week later. Therefore, the defense of the homeland was more important to him than the creative potential and the unfinished constructions of both the memorial Šiluva chapel and the larger-scale Vilnius St. Church of the Heart of Jesus.

Lithuania has lost a genius who could potentially create masterpieces in a restored independent state, but this self-sacrifice imbued with deep faith and patriotism gives us a personality to follow that covers much wider bars of human activity than creativity alone.

So, Šiluva St. The Chapel of the Apparition of the Virgin Mary, the project of which is very early – 1903, also becomes a kind of pinnacle of the artist’s work. It is both the only surviving building designed by him and the only truly almost authentic object he created in general.

Everything starts according to the pastor of Šiluva at that time, Fr. On the initiative of Marcijonas Jurgaitis in 1908, St. For the 300th anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin Mary, at the place of the apparition, instead of the former wooden chapel, build a magnificent palace appropriate to the scale of the event.

Pauliaus Peleckis/BNS photo/Siluva’s indulgences

Knowing well the history of the events of Šiluva, at that time a second-year architecture student, diligently sets to work and relatively quickly creates the concept of the building and, as befits a sculptor, prepares a clay model of the future shrine. At that time, the preparation of the layout itself was not a common phenomenon either in the territory of Lithuania or in the design practice of Tsarist Russia. However, due to various restrictions of the Russian government, the construction of the building began only in 1912, took place intermittently, and the object itself was completed in 1924, after the architect had already died.

The architecture of the building fascinates both with its conceptuality – to convey the Lithuanian identity and spirit in deeply archetypal, co-cultural forms. Here we will find both ancient Egyptian and medieval Gothic – they appear in completely different stylistic directions, but the ability to combine such even contradictory forms of architectural expression is surprising.

If Vilnius St. In the project of the Heart of Jesus, we see a strong influence of medieval architecture, and unmistakable quotes taken from the famous Paris St. Churches of the heart of Jesus, this Šiluvish variant, although earlier in time, is proof of the unlimited creative potential of A. Vivulskis.

The Chapel of the Apparition is already a work that is not securely based on any canon of traditional architecture, but the result of the recovery of a completely new, authentic form. In other words, the architecture of the building is both above the cultural restrictions of the time and above any style norms.

Pauliaus Peleckis/BNS photo/Siluva’s indulgences

However, the new work of A. Vivulskis is not typical of the modernists of that time – breaking, rejecting or even canceling the long-standing history of world architecture. Vivulski’s new is grown in the penetration of tradition itself, and in this way, the building, being a complete innovation of its time, really points to the history and reality of Lithuanian identity and the architectural tradition that reflected it. And this Lithuanian reality is deeply woven into the clothes of distant world civilizations in history, as if to say: “we are also an old nation, an archetypal nation”.

Another aspect that should be mentioned is A. Vivulski’s ability to combine small details and large blind planes – that is, the contrast of the elements of the architectural language very unexpectedly acts as the main key to harmony.

It should be emphasized that the four porticos designed and implemented by A. Vivulskis were not the ones we see now. The porticos were wooden, the author himself paid a lot of attention to them, made a lot of sketches, made separate moldings. Combining wood and masonry architecture is extremely difficult and, one might say, a very dangerous architectural act that often ends in failure.

In the surviving photographs, we can see how all this seemingly dissonant dance of interrelated details creates a perfect architectural harmony that allows the perceiver, in the true sense of the word, to contemplate the building and, apparently, better understand St. The meaning of the apparition of the Virgin Mary in Šiluva.

So, next to the endless Christian and, visible, national symbols, the abundant global architectural context, achieving perfect unity in this work, we sense the desire of the architect and sculptor A. Vivulskis to talk about the Kingdom of Heaven – to convey the image of a completely real New Jerusalem, visible and clearly perceptible to all form.

A. Vivulskis was a great innovator who looked to the future, but he understood very well that the real future does not reject the old, but includes it in the reality created “here and now”. Such a penetrating look at reality without limitations, especially noticeable in the composition of the Šiluva chapel, is an example for us even now of how to create not only new, high-quality architecture, but also the entire state.

In order to spread the news as widely as possible about A. Vivulskis’s life and work and the St. The 4th international scientific conference is being held in Šiluva in memory of Antanas Vivulskis, in memory of the apparition of the Virgin Mary in Šiluva on the stone on which the altar of this sanctuary stands. Future, tradition and faith.

The conference will be held on September 26, 2024. In the pilgrim center of Šiluva. The conference starts at 10 am. 30 minutes More information www.siluva.lt

In the preparation of the text, the professor, architectural historian dr. Nijolė Lukšionytė – Tolvaišienė’s monograph: “Antanas Vivulskis (1977-1919). A combination of tradition and modernity”